Shubman Gill on Team India's WTC Qualification Chances Ahead of Ind-Afg One-Off Test: 'Very Optimistic'

India vs Afghanistan: India captain Shubman Gill is leading the national side for the first-time ever on his home ground in Chandigarh. While he sounded emotional at the toss, he also confirmed that the side is optimistic about their chances of making the WTC final. While asking batters to take more responsibility, Gill also confessed that the goal of the entire team is to make the final. 

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‘Very optimistic about qualifying’

"I and the entire team are very optimistic about qualifying for the World Test Championship final. We still have nine matches remaining, seven of which are at home, while the other two are away in Sri Lanka, where the conditions are quite similar to those in India. Our batters need to take more responsibility, and if they perform well, I believe we can qualify for the World Test Championship final comfortably. The entire squad has one target and one goal to become World Test Championship champions. That is what we want to achieve," Gill said at the toss. 

"Nine Test matches after this, we'll be playing two against Sri Lanka and five at home. So we've got quite a few Test matches here at home and similar conditions, I would say, in Sri Lanka and in India. So just trying to get our combinations right and a lot of things as a batting group that we need to prove, especially here," Gill said about Team India's future plan in Tests. 

IND vs AFG Playing XI

Afghanistan (Playing XI): Sediqullah Atal, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Abdul Malik, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi(c), Afsar Zazai(w), Azmatullah Omarzai, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Nangeyalia Kharote, Ziaur Rahman Sharifi, Mohammad Saleem Safi

India (Playing XI): KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill(c), Rishabh Pant(w), Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Manav Suthar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna